We were children once
by Aqualoner
Summary: Ninjas can't afford to be children. Drabble collection
1. Sakura

Sakura was a child once.

She would dance in the wildflowers with Ino, a long long time ago. When everything was simple and clear. Sometimes she wants that feeling more than anything else in this wide, tragic world.

Ino would weave flowers in her hair and Sakura would pretend she was beautiful for just that one moment. That she was good enough for Prince Charming. That he would carry her away on a white stallion and everything would be perfect. Like it was meant to be.

She still dances,not in a field of daisies, but in a battlefield. Her head is adorned, not with flowers, but with blood and a crooked black halo. For she has become a Angel of Death.

Prince Charming is an illusion made up of childish fantasies. He will not love her. A snake is his white stallion and the only place he would care to take her is Death's door. And Sakura can't help but think, as she draws her kunai, that this is not how it is supposed to be.

She is no longer a chid at twelve.


	2. Sasuke

I don't own Naruto. My second drabble in the We were children once series. Please tell me what you think.

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Sasuke was a child once.

He forgets that, sometimes. To busy remembering how it ended.

Sword dripping fresh blood. Drip, Drip as demon's eyes bore into his. Mother and Father corpses with disbelieving eyes. Sasuke knows what that's like.

_Noanikipleaseno_

He focuses on the goal. Vengeance and Sasuke keeps digging himself into a black hole that he probably won't get out of, not that it matters. Nothing matters anymore.

Sasuke refuses to remember warm summer nights catching fireflies. It just hurts too much possibly more than finding his clan exterminated because it was all a lie. Told to him by the one person he loved and trusted most.

His childhood is stained, tainted.

(_Like crimson blood on wooden floors_)

And the only thing that is the somewhat pure is Team 7 and that's why he left. He can't afford another ruin childhood. It would shatter him beyond repair. He just hopes his team will understand but hope is too childishly naive. Sasuke can't do naive.

Sasuke is ripped from childhood at age 8.


	3. Ino

I don't own Naruto. Please Review!! 6 reviews for 200 something hits is ridiculous and kind of depressing. I'm I really that bad?

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Ino knows what a kunoichi, just like she knows the back of her hand. A kunoichi is a spy, a whore and a fighter. Ino is a kunoichi.

She feels dirty. The kind of dirty that is just underneath the skin and you can't get it out no matter how hard you try. Ino has to try anyway.

The water is the hottest she can make it but it isn't hot enough. The dirt is still there under her skin and she thinks it's burrowing deeper and deeper. Ino vaguely wonders if it will ever go away.

Ino comes downstairs with a blue towel wrapped around her body. Blue is her favorite color for more reasons than one. Blue being the opposite of red probably the main one. _She has too much red in her life. _Her father is there and looks as he is about to yell over the two hour shower. His eyes then take in the black and blue bruises covering her body and everything sounds like she has sucked into a black hole. Ino never realized how much she hated the silence until now.

She goes to training with Team Ten like always expect she wears gloves to cover the bruises. It doesn't matter, though. Asuma-senseihas seen enough kunoichi with that look in their eyes to know what happened. Chouji just acts like everything is normal. She isn't sure if it's an act or he really doesn't know. Whatever it is, Ino is beyond grateful. Shikamaru, on the other hand, knows everything and he won't over-look this. He'll store it in his brain for years to come and Ino doesn't know exactly how to feel about that.

Sakura comes to the flower shop and asks her how the mission went. Tears roll down Ino's face before she realizes they are there. Sakura holds her and Ino knows precisely what a kunoichi really is.

A kunoichi is a human sacrifice.

Ino grows up at fifteen in one of the worst ways possible.


	4. Shikamaru

I don't own Naruto. This wasn't as good as the others. I couldn't get it to flow like the others did but tell me if you think I should do it over.

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Shikamura was a child once.

A strange child but a child none the less. While other boys played shinobi, Shikamura watched the clouds. While other kids dreamed of the future, he played shogi.

Because he knew. He knew that childhood is here and now. That the responsibilities of the world would soon come crashing down on his shoulders, so he might as well be lazy while he can, right?

He knew that ninjas weren't heroes only the dead were heroes. That life was no game even if he could fit every single person he knows into a shogi piece except for Naruto _(that boy keeps changing roles which sort of annoys him and pleases at the same time)_. That ninjas are killers, murderers and very replaceable. That a ninja's life is often over before it really even starts (_Asuma-sensei's death just proves he was right. He really hates being right sometimes, all the time.)_

The future doesn't exist for him. Just here and now, which somehow keeps him sane in an insane world.

Shikamura grows up at the ripe old age of 18.


	5. Tenten

I know this is super late but my beta is not feeling well so it isn't my fault. So please give a big round of applause for Butalove for beta-ing it for me! Please check out her stories! By the way, I don't own Naruto.

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Tenten was a child, once.

She dreamt of dragons in her childhood. Because dragons were strong, beautiful and free _(so very free_). Everything that she, a girl with no family name, wasn't but wished to be.

She decided one day to stop wishing and become what she wasn't. She will soar until she is strong, fight until she is beautiful, and fall until she is free. Her kunais will be her claws, swords will be her teeth, and her spirit _(now a dragon's spirit) _will be her wings.

'Yes, she thought, I will be become who I wanted to be.'

She became a true dragon the day she uses the Soshoryu-the pride of her childhood-on the mortals below. She watches the children crying for their parents as the weapons rain down. She saw the people look at her with despair, helplessness and absolute fear in their eyes. She then remembered that dragons stole, injured and killed **just because they could**. S_trength becomes loneliness, beauty changes into cruelty, freedom is selfishness and Tenten knows what a dragon **(monster)** really is._

Tenten loses what she was and becomes what she wasn't at 16.


	6. Hinata

Hinata was a child, once.

As much of a child as a Hyuuga can be.

_(A child should not have so many impossible expectations on her pale brow)_

So now fate has decided that she is facing another Hyuuga child.

_(her brother, the genius, the lesser)_

No expectations on his brow but there is a headband concealing a seal _(cage)_.

_(That might be worse. She isn't quite sure yet.)_

With hate and bitterness, he belittles and her abilities.

(_The ones that she cried, sweated and bleed for.)_

He picks her apart for the world to see and there is no Father to hide behind, no teammates to protect her, no Kurenai-sensei to wipe away the tears.

Nothing to do but stand there.

_(Or fight maybe, the deepest part of her whispers fiercely)_

But the idea is too impossible to voice.

Except by Naruto Uzumaki because in his world, determination is everything, and genius means nothing.

And how can she take Neji's crap?

So she doesn't.

Byakugan blazing, hands in place, heart, nindo and life on the line, Hinata stands up and fights.

_(Because what does impossible mean to a ninja?)_

At 12, Hinata proves she can change and grows up in the process.


	7. Kakashi

My first time writing anything but the Kohana 12 so I hope you enjoy. Thanks to Mistress of Sarcasm for beta-ing and check out her awesome new Sasuke story. Who should I do next?

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Kakashi was a child once.

This however ends after his father commits _seppuku._

A fancy word meaning suicide.

_(and failure and cowardice and loss and dying.)  
_

Words that a six year old shouldn't be able to spell, let alone know the definition of.

_(But Kakashi is a genius, so he understands perfectly.)_

There is anger and grief and hurt and fear but above all that is a weariness that goes straight to his young, tired bones and a deeper feeling of regret.

Because he should have known, should have seen coming, should have been able to stop because isn't he suppose to be the genius?

_(or a son desperately wishing his daddy will smile again?)_

_(What did Sensei always say? Look underneath the underneath.)_

But there is nothing to look at except blood, guts and dishonored _(broken, tattered, oh-so very dead) _White Fang. So Kakashi tightens his mask _(You are a Hatake, my son.), _and cleans up his father's mess.

Kakashi grows up at six because there is nothing else to do.


End file.
